Peppermint Tea.

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Alternative, Anxiety, awareness, beautiful, beverage, Cooking, crickets, depression, health, home, hope, hot tea, inspiration, life peace, little voices, mental-health, Peppermint, peppermint tea, recovery, Shopping, strength, stressors, Tea, treatment, understanding

Sometimes in life it absolutely has to be about the little things because if not we’ll  get sucked up into our greatest fears, our biggest insecurities, our constant worries and anxieties or those little voices that tell us day after day “nope, you’re not good enough.”

Right now I am sipping peppermint tea while I listen to the crickets outside my window. It’s warm in my mouth and the taste travels up to my nose as the hot tea slips down into my belly. Ahhh, a beautiful, blissful, moment and break from my own brain. Peppermint Tea.

We can remove ourselves from a lot in life. If someone is bothering we can remove ourselves from the situation. If environmental factors are triggering, we can change ourselves from our environment. But what about our own thoughts? For me this has at times been one of my biggest stressors and so I’ve had to develop tools on the path to recovery one of these tools has been finding life, peace, serenity, and comfort in the “little” things (like peppermint tea).

Make your life special for you.
You deserve it.

(time for another cup)

My name is Erin and This is Where I Stand

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Find your happy place.

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architecture, Arts, aviation, Bathtub, Bedding, Bedroom, diy, home, Home and Garden, nature, plants, Shopping, Shower gel, United States

New job. New co-workers. New apartment. New city. New schedule.
new new new new new new new new new new new
It’s time to find my happy place

Personally, I think everyone needs a happy place (I have two). My first one is in the bath tub, hot steaming water, bubbles, a candle, a relatively small space and the nice smells of my body wash. For me it also helps to image myself washing away all of my frustration. Goodbye world; hello peace. My second happy place is my room. Now, any room can be my room as long as (1) I’m alone, because sometimes I just need my alone time (2) I have some sort of art to do, drawing, coloring, painting, etc OR a journal and (3) I have a blanket, because blankets give me comfort.

Knowing my happy places are huge tools for me because it helps me to know who to unwind after a particularly difficult day. What is your happy place? What do you need? If you don’t have one think about how you can create one. We all need a little extra happy.

My name is Erin and this is Where I Stand.

Email me your happy place at whereistandblog@gmail.com and I will post it on the blog to help give other people ideas!

 

Where I Stand: Here We Go!

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Ball, erin casey, founders, inspiration, mental-health, Natalie, non profit, where I Stand

Where I Stand Founders Erin Casey and Natalie Ball will be submitting Where I Stand’s official Nonprofit paperwork the first week of October. Show your support by liking our page and/or sharing our blog! Gaining Non-Profit Status will enable us to independently put on events, raise money for research initiatives and the launching programing in school K-12 and college!!!! We are so excited! #whereistand

Song of the Day: Closer to Love by Mat Kearney

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#believe, Arts, Bad News, Christianity, Closer to Love, encourage, hope, inspire, keep going, life, Listen, Matt Kearney, Melody, Music, Phone Call, relationships, Song, support, Tragedy, Trauma, understanding, YouTube

She got the call today
One out of the gray
And when the smoke cleared
It took her breath away

She said she didn’t believe
It could happen to me
I guess, we’re all one phone call
From our knees
We’re gonna get there soon

If every building falls
And all the stars fade
We’ll still be singing this song
The one they can’t take away

I’m gonna get there soon
She’s gonna be there too
Crying in her room
Praying, Lord, come through
We’re gonna get there soon

Oh, it’s your light
Oh, it’s your way
Pull me out of the dark
Just to show me the way

Crying out now
From so far away
You pull me closer to love
Closer to love

Meet me once again
Down off Lake Michigan
Where we could feel the storm blowing
Down with the wind

And don’t apologize
For all the tears you’ve cried
You’ve been way too strong
Now for all your life

I’m gonna get there soon
You’re gonna be there too
Crying in your room
Praying Lord come through
We’re gonna get there soon

Oh, it’s your light
Oh, it’s your way
Pull me out of the dark
Just to show me the way

Crying out now
From so far away
You pull me closer to love
Closer to love

‘Cause you are all that I’ve waited for
All of my life
We’re gonna get there
You are all that I’ve waited for
All of my life

You pull me closer to love
Closer to love
Pull me closer to love

You pull me closer to love
Closer to love, oh no
Closer to love, closer to love
Pull me closer to love

Truth

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#believe, be you, Consent, Education, Eleanor Roosevelt, encourage, encouragement, Feel, hope, Inferior, inspiration, Inspiration Where I Stand, inspire, keep going, life, love yourself, photo, quote, self care, sign, support, truth, Without

Trigger Talk: Physical Illness

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Australia, depressed workers, Disease, health, Illness, medicine, Mental disorder, mental self, mental-health, Oceania, physical illness, physical selves, Policy and Advocacy

From coughing, sneezing, hurting ears, upset stomachs, and exhaustion, physical illness takes a toll on more than just our physical selves, but our emotional and mental well beings too. Physical illness can be a trigger for mental and emotional  set-backs, it important that we recognize what is happening.

Recently a bad cold plagued the residents of the residential facility where I worked, and naturally I found myself with a cough, stuffed up nose, and light and spinning head before long. I also found myself exhausted physically, emotionally and mentally. I found my mood lower than typical when following my treatment plan and I began to panic. I then called my parents saying “Something is wrong! Sometime is wrong!” Hearing the illness in my voice they told me to get rest, acknowledge that I am physically ill they advised that I, treat my body well with proper nutrition and be patient until I will feel better. Skeptical and hesitant while feeling miserable and scared; I listened and today I am happy to tell you that while my body and physically self is on the mend my emotional and mental self is right along with it.

Physical illness can definitely be a trigger for a mental/emotional reaction, and being able to identify the trigger goes a long way in being able to deal with the situation.

My name is Erin and This is Where I Stand.

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• 9 in 10 depressed workers prefer to suffer in silence than confide in colleagues (dnaindia.com)
• Study finds men are more likely to develop physical illness than women (eurekalert.org)
• My thoughts on Mental illness (hannahraphy.wordpress.com)
• I Have a Dream (whereistandblog.wordpress.com)
• Nearly half believe social media harmful, survey finds (irishtimes.com)
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A Message from Kid President

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Be Awesome, Change the World, inspiration, inspire, Kid President, school, Soul Pancake, Students, teachers, To be, Yolo

Grace for Today.

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Christ, Christianity, deep hole, Divine grace, faith, God, god comments, jesus, Pain, religion, Religion and Spirituality, spirituality, suffering pain, top of my lungs

I rarely write about my faith for Where I Stand. I think partly because in some of my most difficult and trying times I met individuals who told me that my struggle with my own brain was a result of my lack of faith, my own sin, or being disconnected from God. Comments like this broke me in a way that is hard to explain as I was looking up from a deep hole that was my own misery of depression, self-hate, disordered eating, fear, shame and disgust.

This planted a fear in my heart of sending others that same message. Today it’s time to face that fear.

I want to scream from the top of my lungs that your struggles, your illness, and your broken heart are not a result of God punishing you for some “wrongdoing” of your own creation. That idea and thought that people put in my brain that spoke lies to my heart comes from a dark place – a place that is untouched by the light of the Father. Those messages were lies spread by “bullies of the faith”.

You do not “deserve” and you did not “earn” pain, trial and suffering. All darkness in this world exists apart from God. We are faced with trials and suffering, pain and heartbreak because of the world.

It’s NOT your fault.

I have about twenty five journals filled with prayers crying out to God begging for relief and comfort. At times I wondered “what did I do to deserve this?” and “Why is God doing this to me?” The truth however was that God was breathing for me during those times. Each day he gave me grace (sometimes as simple and small as a hug from a friend) that allowed me to endure the pain.

The world is filled with heartbreak, pain, and fear. Some people told me that God was the giver of these things; the reality was he was my refuge from these things.

This post is not to convince you, convert you, trick you, or tell you that God makes any of this easy. I’m writing this to you to tell you that God won’t leave your side. I’m alive today because he didn’t leave mine.

You are loved.

My name is Erin and This is Where I Stand.

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• Testimony of Grace (sonshinegrove.wordpress.com)
• A Great God and an Unimportant Writer (annawood.wordpress.com)
• Sharing the rich, indwelling Word of Christ (Colossians 3:16) (aneededword.wordpress.com)
• Thorn in the Flesh (godofangelarmies.wordpress.com)
• God Can Heal a Broken Heart, But He Has to Have ‘ALL’ the Pieces (proverbsway.com)
• I Have Been Blessed More Than I Deserve (theandidiaries.wordpress.com)
• A Prayer For More Assurance (churchinstpeters.com)
• A Further Look At Ephesians: Dancing with darkness vs. Marriage with the Light (intentionalbeing.wordpress.com)
• Your Grace Is Sufficient For Me…A reflection on Gospel LK 12:49-53 (sciencegranny57.wordpress.com)
• To Count It All Joy is a Real Life-Change (donnaharris.wordpress.com)

 

Truth.

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#believe, image, late night talk, picture, saying, talk, trust, truth

Patience: A Poem

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Books, erin elizabeth, fear lack, God, grocery store, growth and development, health, lack of trust, mental-health, Patience, Recreation and Sports, Shopping, Walking

Life Lessons: Patience

The recovery process teaches us something new everyday. Two years into this journey still wonder: when am I going to learn patience? I’m not necessarily talking about patience in a long line at the grocery store, but patience with my own growth and development, and sometimes for life events to occur or get moving.

Below is a poem I wrote about patience over a year ago; even though those words came from my heart to the paper some time ago my goodness they still ring true for me today. Honestly who doesn’t need more patience from time to time?

Remember: Everything worth having is worth waiting for.

Patience

By: Erin Elizabeth Casey

We all want thing we don’t have
Well, I want patience

Maybe I was born with this deficiency
Maybe I developed it somewhere along the way
But typically I want things “right now – here in this moment – as good as yesterday”

Recovery is teaching me this virtue and trait
Often times saying to me:
“Erin, it’ will come, you’ll get there, you just have to wait.”

Now to give you a picture as to what this feels like in my heart
In that moment I fill with fear, as thought I will break a part
“What if it never comes today, or any day at all?”
“What if while I’m waiting I just continue to fall?”

I struggle with patience in all areas of life you see
But recovery is the most difficult because of everything that is at stake, including me

I think it comes from fear
Lack of trust too
It I can get it now
It won’t be able to escape somehow

But recovery, like so many other things is a process
That comes slowly but surely too
So sometimes, as much as it sucks we just have to grit our teeth and walk through

Walk through the anxiety of not knowing
Walk through the pain of waiting to be better
Walk through the burning to desire to get this done

And realize that…
Even if this journey has just begun
It is worth it
Even if you’ve been walking for years
It is worth it
Even if you keep tripping and falling
It is worth it
Patience is hard, scary, frustrating and anxiety ridden as well
But we must try to develop that simple yet profound trait in order to continue on and excel

Patience

My name is Erin and This is Where I Stand.

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• All It Takes Is A Little Patience (averagesouthafrican.wordpress.com)
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• Patience is… (thepngexperience.wordpress.com)